ECHOES OF THE WEEK.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVX, Issue 3129, 15 May 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

ECHOES OF THE WEEK.

Satire’ll my weapon, but I’m too discreet To run amuck and tilt at all 1 meet. _ POPB. BY SCRUTATOR. The Duo d’Aumale, who died last week, as an indirect result of tho terrible catastrophe at tho Paris bazaar, had a lot of “ real grit ” in his character. Whatever else ho inherited from poor old Louis Philippe, the bourgeois king, the Citizen King, ho had none of tho vacillation, the weakness, tho fatuous inability to look further than his own nose, which characterised the man of whom he was tho fourth son. In early life, before tho crash came, in *4B, when thrones were tumbled over like ninepins, and half tho crowned heads of Europe were either “ fired out,” or in danger of being “ fired out ” by the newly awakened' democracy, tho duke did good service in Algeria. He it was who instituted and carried out the campaign which resulted in the “ Grand Old Han Arab, Ab-Del-Kader, being vanquished by the French, and when, many years afterwards the Orleanist princes were allowed to return to France —in 1871, if I remember rightly, he set to work like a Trojan to reorgoniso tho army of his native country. Tho duke, by the way, was tho president of tho court martial which condemned tho traitor Bazaino to perpetual imprisonment in a fortress, from whence Bazaino escaped, after a while, to Spain.

The Duke had to leave France again when at tho instance of that wretched charlatan, but for a time, successful schemer and intriguer, tho so-called brav general, Boulanger, an edict of expulsion was passed by the National Assembly , against tho Orleanist Princes. But before he left for England, which had given shelter to his father and to himself, the Duke did what was under tho circumstances a very generous thing, Ho bequeathed his Chantilly chateau and all its art treasures to the French nation, to tho nation which through its representatives in in Parliament was treating him so meanly. The name of Chantilly is familiar to all who know Paris. There is tho beautiful forest of Chantilly, the famous racecourse of Chantilly—it is tho Newmarket of France —and above all there is tho magnificent chateau, built by tho Due D’Aumale on the site of tho ancient seat of Condds, tho Condes from whom ho himself sprung, and .this same chateau contains the finest private art collection in Europe. There are artistic treasures in the 1 famous chateau that even tho Louvre, Luxembourg and tho British National Gallery cannot show tho equals of, and all these, worth over throe millions sterling, so it is computed, were bequeathed to the French nation at a time when the same French nation officially told its owner, its own son, to be an exile for life. Happily however, the Bonlanger boom burst and the French nation, as is its wont, after its periodical outbursts of imbecility, returned to average sanity. The edict of expulsion was repealed, tho Orleans princes went back to France, and the Duo D’Aumalo has lived to see himself fully recognised, even by the most ardent “ Beds ” of the “ Extreme Left,” as an unselfish, truly patriotic citizen of the Third Republic. There was nothing of the Chauvinisto about the late Duke. For England, which gave him a home when he and his family were under a cloud, he had never anything save goodwill. It would be well indeed were his nephew, Prince Henri d’Orleans, governed by the same spirit. Unfortunately, this young gentleman has a large amount of the ■poseur strain in his composition, and his present attitude is one of undisguised Anglophobia.

The Very Bev Dean Fitchett is deservedly respected in Dunedin for his learning and his religious zeal. At the same time, I am rather surprised to notice that certain, remarks which fell from him at a recent meeting of the University Debating Society on the subject of “ Patriotism ” have not called forth some very severe criticism from his fellow citizens. According to the Otago Daily Times, the Dean “ made a stirring appeal to his audience to cultivate a patriotic feeling, and pointed out that there was a justification for such a feeling in the knowledge that they were citizens of the greatest Empire the world had ever seen.” So far so good, but proceeding with his speech, the Dean went on to cast a most unworthy, a most stupid, a most unjustifiable slur upon what I would describe as New Zealand or colonial national patriotism. “He admitted ” —I again quote the Otago Daily Times —“that there was not much in New Zealand to furnish them with the material for national pride, and the Dean confessed his inability to work up much enthusiasm over a catalogue in which the principal lots were Maori carving, the Maori war, the early settlers and their adventures and misadventures, the early days of the gold diggings and the romance of colonial banking.”

Unless Dean Fitchett has been wofully misreported-—and that is not at all likely with the Otago Daily Times —he has committed himself to a singularly stupid statement which will by no means increase his reputation as a public man, and, presumably, a patriotic colonist. He sneers at the Maori war, and yet, I would ask, where in the history of young nations w'as there ever a record of more gallant. deeds, more nobly, more truly patriotic deeds than those done in that war—on both sides? He, good soul, safe in the possession of a snug home and a snug living in the far South,' safe away from the hundred perils and horrors of sanguinary conflicts, in which men on both sides bled gallantly for their race, conflicts in which were engaged settlers of no special military training, settlers who fought for their homes and their wives and children ; he, I say, “ confesses his inability to work up much enthusiasm ” over the Maori war. Perhaps he cannot. There are some men in whom all true spirit of patriotism, all feeling of honour to the brave and gallant, all sympathy with great deeds, is impossible. It is not for such ■ smallminded creatures to blare and blether about patriotism and to cast a slur upon men a hundred times rhorei generoushearted than himself—-men who fought and bled for their adopted country.

He cannot, this good Dean Fitchett, “ work up much enthusiasm over the early settlers and their adventures.” Perhaps not. Has he ever toiled long ’ and weary years in breaking down the forest, has he lived in the colony with 'the “earlier settlers” at whom he sheered, the men who fought the good fight of civilization against savagery, has he forded rivers in flood, have he and his been in peril of their lives from a savage foe, has ho struggled hard for years to build up a homo in the bush ?—has he ?—but why go any further —the public man, the minister of the gospel, who gets upon a platform and sneers at “ the • earlier settlors and their adventures and misadventures,” is a man to. pity and despise, not a man J; whose., arguments are to be taken ' too- seriously. Dean Fitchett may, ‘ X repeat, be a " very learned rnah, a very cultured man, a good Christian, but he has proved by-his deliverance before .the: Dunedin undergraduates; his utter miscomprehen'sioii of what is' true colonial patriotism, and pride, in the heroic' deeds of tha “ earlier settlers,” whether in’fighting the natives, or in' conquering the forest, or in doing pioneer work oh the goldfields. It is not for such a man to prate about patriotism. He does not understand the true meaning of the word. ’

Lieutenant Eloff, Kruger’s young relative who made himself notorious the other day by an insulting reference to Queen Victoria at a banquet, w T as on very

friendly terms with “Dr Jim.” He was tho officer who, when tho raiders were on their way to Krugorsdorp, met some of Jameson’s men and asked them where they wore going. He was arrested by the officer in charge, and his horse was taken away from him. Of course he protested, but Colonel Grey said, “ You can protest as much as you like; these are my orders.” When “Dr Jim,” however, came up ho immediately released the lieutenant. I read in an English paper just to hand that Eloff went to England wtth tho raider prisoners and made himself exceedingly popular during hia stay in London. This being so, his conduct at the banquet is all the more inexplicable. Possibly ho had drunk not wisely but too well. The Boers are great “ soakers” at all official functions when there is nothing to pay, for they “ have a frugal mind.”

When the verdict on Jameson and his officers, so I read, resulted in imprisonment, Lieut. Eloff was greatly concerned. “ I thought they would bo fined, like the rest,” he said, and he promised on his return to the Transvaal to do what he could to obtain a mitigation. “I am personally very sorry Dr Jameson has to go to prison. I knew him, and he was always good to me.” He had, however, a less favourable opinion of Mr Rhodes. “So long, ho said, “ as Mr Rhodes remained in power in South Africa no Boer considered himself safe from disturbance. Rightly or wrongly, all thought ho was at the bottom of everything there.”

Talking about Eloff reminds mo that tho Boers appear to bo backing down a little. Tho repeal of the objectionable Aliens Immigration Act, which, it is well known, was specially aimed at Englishmen —for Gorman and Dutchmen the officials conveniently found a host of loopholes—may or may not bo the commencement of a now era of justice towards tho hated Britisher, but it is certainly something gained, and is no doubt an outcome of Mr Chamberlain’s firmness.

But if the Boer hates the Briton it must bo admitted that some of the AngloAfrioan journals published in London, and “ run,” most of them, I expect, with assistance from tho Chartered Company as a specially subsidised “reptile press,” use tho most insulting language towards “ Oom Paul.” By Jho last mail I received a copy of a weekly London paper called The Empire and South African Empire, A prominent feature of its literary contents is a column or series of columns headed “ Things in General and People in Particular,” written by the editor, one Stuart Cumberland, a gentleman at one time much in evidence as a “thought reader. Mr Cumberland evidently has no lovo for “ Oom Paul,” judging by such expressions as the following:—

“ At heart as base arid with methods as oppressive as any one of tho darkskinned monarcha we, in the various parts of tho Empire, have hastened to suppress. “As oppressive and as corrupt as the Grand Turk. ‘ Tho biggest liar in all South Africa.’ “ Paul Kruger has been personally responsible for all the recent retrograde legislation in the Transvaal, a corrupt, blasphemous old man with a cunning that a wolverine might envy, and a capacity for lying that even Ananias at his best could never have equalled.” The above are only a few samples of the Empire editor’s general style of comment upon and reference to the Transvaal president’s actions. They serve to show that the Boers have not all the abuse and blackguardism on their side. And yet Mr Cumberland waxes indignant because he has been informed that the Tranvaal government intended to forbid the sale of his paper in their country.

Apropos to the very natural detestation in which the Greeks hold the Kaiser, a little incident is recorded by a Hamburg paper which shows how a Greek merchant of patriotic tendenoeis “got back” on a German house with which he did business. A certain Hamburg firm, so it appears, sent 100 sacks of rice to a Greek firm, D. E. Hadjiconstantio et freres, of Syra, who promptly sent the following letter, in French—the commercial language of the Levant —to the shippers:— lam in receipt of your invoice of 100 sacks of rice. You can send the rice to your Marines at Canea, who showed such groat heroism in bombarding the Christians with melinite. Certainly your goods will make them still stronger.- Great impudence of a

European Power! The Hamburg paper, of course, waxes highly indignant over the epistle, and says : “Ho who wishes to escape loss must send nothing to Greece! It is just ‘robber blood.’” ’ Personally, however, I cannot help rejoicing that the German firm Wore put' to' some inconvenience, and, I ■ presume, loss, for Germany to-day-—through her foreign policy—is showing herself. as the most bumptious and selfish Power in Europe, and one can hardly blame an exasperated Greek merchant for .entering upon a practical “ policy of reprisals.” If every nation treated shabbily by the great little Kaiser at Berlin would only enter upon a policy of deliberately boycotting anything and everything that is “ made in Germany, the merchants and manufacturers of the “ Vaterland ” would speedily make the “ Young Man in a Hurry ” change his policy.. Personally, the Germans are very fine fellows, but as a Power, Germany is to-day, owing to the policy of her hotheaded, blustering monarch, about the best-hated nation in the world. °

Talking about the Kaiser, his bombastic grandiloquence never found more striking exemplification than in a speech recently delivered by him at a state celebration of the birthday of his grandfather, the first William of Germany. This is how the Kaiser broke forth :

I have just come from the ancient wilds of the Mark of Brandenburg, w'here the old mark pines and oaks rustled around me. I have come to the living counterpart of these, to the men of the Mark, and I am glad to bo able once more to spend a_ few hours among you, for to bo in the company of the sons of the Mark is always for me like a draught that renews my vigour. What the rustling of the oaks and pines of the Mark has been telling me has just been well expressed by the President. With eminent justice, my dear Achenbach, you made special mention of my grandfather of exalted and blessed memory. Our festival to-day, and, indeed, the times as a whole, are bathed in the crescent roseate hues of the morn that is about to break, the centenary of the birthday of that exalted Monarch.

In the way of what Pooh Bah called his “ family pride,” the Kaiser beats the record. All the conceit of a hundred Bourbons combined is as nothing compared with that of the young man who rejoices in the defeat of 'the Greeks, simply because his own sister , married tiro Duke of Sparta, and because ho, W’as snubbed when he ' /went to Athens. A nice sort Of creature’this to hold the destinies of millions of people in hia hands.' < Soine’day’ there will' be a revolution in Germany and the working classes and the middle classes and-all* Germans 'outsidethejuirely aristocratic and military sot Who toady'to the Emperor will unite as one man and teach his Imperial. Blustership a muoh-rieedbd lesson, „. , i .